Right-wing terrorists aim to overthrow governments and replace them with nationalist or fascist-oriented regimes.[1] The core of this movement includes neo-fascist skinheads, far-righthooligans, youth sympathisers and intellectual guides who believe that the state must rid itself of foreign elements in order to protect its rightful citizens.[3] However, they usually lack a rigid ideology.[4]

Armin Falk and colleagues suggests that Right-Wing Extremist Crime (REC), which includes anti-foreigner and racist motivations, is associated with unemployment rates (261). Consequently, as unemployment rates increase, REC also increases. This correlation can be found in several countries including Germany, United States, and the United Kingdom. Additionally, this phenomenon is not necessarily associated with individuals, rather unemployment impacts society's humanitarian values of tolerance and altruism. Meaning, as unemployment rates increase, humanitarian values of tolerance and altruism decrease according to Falk. This cause of right-wing terrorism can be associated with a functionalist perspective on employment. Ferrante defines a functionalist approach as "how the parts of society contribute in expected and unexpected way of maintain an existing social order" (26). Work and employment serve several functions for society (University of Minnesota 12.2). The University of Minnesota Library suggests that employment provides workers with an income and also contributes to their self-identity and fulfillment (12.2). When employment is low, this leads to a perceived threat towards self-identity and fulfillment which can then lead to a larger possibility for right-wing terrorism to occur.

A second cause of right-wing terrorism as Thomas Greven suggests, is populism, or more accurately, right-wing populism. Jan-Werner Muller describes populism as a form of identity politics that is inherently anti-establishment and anti-pluralist (3). More simply put, populism supports the advancement of 'the average citizen', and it does not support the agendas of the privileged elite. Furthermore, Greven defines right-wing populist as those who support ethnocentrism, and oppose immigration (3). Right-wing populist policies that have recently been covered in the media include the Executive Order 13769, which is the travel ban from Muslim-majority countries to the United States, and the Immigration policy of Donald Trump which proposes that a wall should be built between the United States and Mexico in order to prevent illegal immigrants from coming to the United States. Greven suggests that immigration policy not only threatens economic competition, but also threatens traditional values and identities (5). Due to the ethnocentric motivations behind these policies, they are classified as right-wing populism. Because right-wing populism creates a climate of 'us versus them', terrorism is more likely to occur according to Greven. This cause of right-wing terrorism can be associated with a conflict perspective. Ferrante explains the conflict perspective as a focus on conflict regarding scarce resources and the strategies advantaged groups used to perpetuate social agreement arrangements from which they benefit (30). When people feel as though their traditional values are being threatened by the social elite who contribute to the rise in immigration, conflict ensues, and terrorism follows.

During Brazil's military government, some right-wing military engaged in violent repression. The Riocentro 1981 May Day Attack was a bombing attempt that happened on the night of April 30, 1981. Severe casualties were suffered by the terrorists. While an NGO held a fundraiser fighting for democracy and free elections and celebrating the upcoming holiday, a bomb exploded at Riocentro parking area killing army seargent Guilherme Pereira do Rosário and severely wounding captain Wilson Dias Machado, who survived the bomb explosion. The bomb exploded inside a car where both were preparing it. Rosário died instantaneously. They were the only casualties.

The Para-SAR example[6][7] was revealed by Brazilian Air Force captain Sérgio Ribeiro Miranda de Carvalho in 1968 before it reached the execution phase as it was made public to the press after a meeting with his superior Brigadier General João Paulo Burnier and chief of Para-SAR unity. Burnier discussed a secret plan to bomb a dense traffic area of Rio de Janeiro known as "Gasômetro" during commute and later claim that Communists were the perpretrators. He expected to be able to run a witch-hunt against the growing political military opposition. Burnier also mentioned his intentions on making the Para-SAR, a Brazilian Air Force rescue unity, a tool for eliminating some military government political oppositors throwing them to the sea at a wide distance of the coast. On both of these events, no military involved on these actions or planning was arrested, charged or faced retaliation from the Brazilian military government. The only exception is captain Sérgio de Carvalho which had to leave the air force for facing his superiors retaliation after whistleblowing brigadier Burnier's plan.

According to George Michael, "right-wing terrorism and violence has a long history in America".[28] Right-wing violent incidents began to outnumber Marxist incidents in the United States during the 1980s and 1990s.[29]:29 Michael observes the waning of left-wing terrorism accompanying the rise of right-wing terrorism, with a noticeable "convergence" of the goals of militant Islam with those of the extreme right. Islamic studies scholar Youssef M. Choueiri classified Islamic fundamentalist movements involving revivalism, reformism, and radicalism as within the scope of "right-wing politics".[30]:9

Eric Rudolph executed a series of terrorist attacks between 1996 and 1998. He carried out the 1996 Centennial Olympic Park bombing—which claimed two lives and injured 111—aiming to cancel the games, claiming they promoted global socialism and to embarrass the U.S. government.[37] Rudolph confessed to bombing an abortion clinic in Sandy Springs, an Atlanta suburb, on January 16, 1997, the Otherside Lounge, an Atlanta lesbian bar, on February 21, 1997, injuring five and an abortion clinic in Birmingham, Alabama on January 29, 1998, killing Birmingham police officer and part-time clinic security guard Robert Sanderson and critically injuring nurse Emily Lyons.

Right-wing extremist offenses in Germany rose sharply in 2015 and 2016.[45] Figures from the German government tallied 316 violent xenophobic offences in 2014 and 612 such offenses in 2015.[45]

In August 2014, a group of four Germans founded a Munich-based far-right terrorist group, the Oldschool Society (de). The group, which held racist, antisemitic, and anti-Muslim views, eventually attracted 30 members.[46] They stockpiled weapons and explosives and plotted to attack a refugee shelter in Saxony,[46] but the group's leaders were arrested in May 2015 before carrying out the attack.[47] In March 2017 four of the group's leaders were sentenced to prison terms.[46] The perpetrator of the 2016 Munich shooting also had far-right views.

In the 1970s and 1980s, Italy endured the Years of Lead, a period characterized by frequent terrorist attacks from both the far-left and the far-right. between 1969 and 1982, the nation suffered 8,800 terrorist attacks, in which a total of 351 people were killed and 768 were injured.[48] Right-wing terrorism was dominant in Italy from 1969 to 1974, while left-wing terrorism was dominant in the late 1970s.[48] The Years of Lead are considered to have begun with the Piazza Fontana bombing in Milan in December 1969,[48] perpetrated by Ordine Nuovo, a right-wing neofascist group.[49] Sixteen people were killed, and 90 injured, in the bombing.[49]

Ordine Nuovo continued its campaign of terror until the mid-1980s. In July 1970, the group carried out a bombing on a train going from Rome to Messina, killing six and wounding almost 100. The group also carried out the Piazza della Loggia bombing in 1974, killing eight antifascist activists.[49] Perhaps the most infamous right-wing terrorist attack in post-war Italy is the August 1980 Bologna bombing, in which neo-fascist Nuclei Armati Rivoluzionari ("Armed Revolutionary Nuclei"), an Ordine Nuovo offshoot, killed 85 people and injured 200 at the Bologna railroad station.[49][50]Valerio Fioravanti, Francesca Mambro, and two others were convicted of mass murder in the attacks,[50] although both have always denied any connection with the attacks.[51][52]

In December 2011, a far-right gunman targeted Senegalese traders in Florence, killing two and injuring three others before killing himself.[53][54] The perpetrator was associated with CasaPound,[53][54] a neo-fascist organization that perpetrates political violence.[54][55]

On July 22, 2011, Norwegian right-wing extremist with Nazi[56][57] and fascist[58] sympathies, Anders Behring Breivik, carried out the 2011 Norway attacks, the largest mass killing of people in Norway by a single person during peacetime, excluding use of bombs. First he bombed several government buildings in Oslo, killing eight people and injuring more than 30. After the bombings, he went to Utøya island in a fake police uniform and began firing on people attending a political youth camp for the Worker's Youth League (AUF), a left-wing political party, killing 68 and injuring more than 60.

Despite the country being nearly ethnically and religiously homogenous, Polish far-right targets, via propaganda or physical violence, religious and ethnic minorities such as Jews, Romani people, people with darker complexion or Middle Eastern appearance. In 1991, an anti-Romani pogrom broke out in Mława. During the UEFA Euro 2012, Polish hooligans targeted random Russian football supporters. There have been reports of hate crimes targeting Muslim minority in Poland. Far-right and right-wing populist political parties and organizations fuel fear and hatred towards Islam and Muslims.[59] Hate crimes such as arson and physical violence have occurred in Poland (despite having a Muslim population of only 0.1%, that is 30,000 out of 38 million).[60][61] In 2016, police arrested a man who they say tried to burn down a mosque in Gdansk.[44] The man belonged to the neo-nazi group called Blood & Honour.

In April 1999, David Copeland, a neo-Nazi, planted a series of nail bombs over 13 days, causing explosions in Brixton, Brick Lane (in east London), and Soho (in central London). His attacks, which were aimed at London's black, Bangladeshi and gay communities, resulted in three dead and more than 100 injured.[63] Copeland was a former member of two far right political groups, the British National Party (BNP) and the National Socialist Movement. Copeland told police, "My aim was political. It was to cause a racial war in this country. There'd be a backlash from the ethnic minorities, then all the white people will go out and vote BNP."[64]

In July 2007, Robert Cottage, a former BNP member, was convicted for possessing explosive chemicals in his home – described by police at the time of his arrest as the largest amount of chemical explosive of its type ever found in that country.[65] In June 2008, Martyn Gilleard, a British Nazi sympathizer, was jailed after police found nail bombs, bullets, swords, axes and knives in his flat.[66] Also in 2008, Nathan Worrell was found guilty of possession of material for terrorist purposes and racially aggravated harassment. He was described by anti-terror police as a "dangerous individual". The court heard that police found books and manuals containing "recipes" to make bombs and detonators using household items, such as weedkiller, at Worrell's flat.[67] In July 2009, Neil Lewington was planning on waging a terror campaign using weapons made from tennis balls and weedkiller against those he classified as "non British".[68]

In 2012, the British Home Affairs Committee warned of the threat of far right terrorism in the UK, claiming it had heard "persuasive evidence" about the potential danger and cited the growth of similar threats across Europe.[69]

Members of Combat 18 (C18), a neo-Nazi organisation based on the concept of "leaderless resistance", have been suspected in numerous deaths of immigrants, non-whites and other C18 members.[70] Between 1998 and 2000, dozens of members were arrested.[71][72] A group calling itself the Racial Volunteer Force split from C18 in 2002, retaining close links to its parent organization.[73] Some journalists believed that the White Wolves were a C18 splinter group, alleging that the group had been set up by Del O'Connor, the former second-in-command of C18 and member of Skrewdriver Security.[74] C18 attacks on immigrants continued through 2009.[75] Weapons, ammunition and explosives were seized by police in the UK and almost every country in which C18 was active.

In August 2016 Phillip Galea was charged with several terrorist offences. Galea had conducted "surveillance" of "left-wing premises" and planned to carry out bombings. Explosive ingredients were found at his home. Galea had links with organisations such as Combat 18 and the United Patriots Front.[89] In 2017 the Sydney Morning Herald reported on the conviction of neo-Nazi Michael James Holt, 26 who had threatened to carry out a mass shooting attack and considered Westfield Tuggerah as a target. He had manufactured home-made guns, knuckle dusters and slingshots in his grandfather's garage. Raids on his mothers home and a hotel room discovered more weapons including several firearms, slingshots and knuckle dusters.[90]

^Michael Taussig (2004). Law in a Lawless Land: Diary of limpieza in Colombia. New Press.

^Elizabeth F. Schwartz (Winter 1995–1996). "Getting Away with Murder: Social Cleansing in Colombia and the Role of the United States". The University of Miami Inter-American Law Review. 27 (2): 381–420.